


Ozai's Goat Beard v. Big Hawk

by neuronary



Series: The Big Hawk Chronicles [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Inspired by MuffinLance, Salvage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21858940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neuronary/pseuds/neuronary
Summary: The Southern Water Tribe are not currently in possession of messenger hawks. Their alternatives are shockingly fireproof. As discovered by the servants of the Fire Nation's royal palace.(insp. by: me reading 'Salvage' far more times than I should have + a man with a stupid beard who got dive-bombed by a seagull in a tube station.)
Relationships: Azula & Big Hawk
Series: The Big Hawk Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632730
Comments: 66
Kudos: 1846
Collections: Azula Likes Birds Cinematic Universe





	Ozai's Goat Beard v. Big Hawk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Salvage](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21116591) by [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/pseuds/MuffinLance). 



> ahem. man who got dive bombed by a seagull in victoria station: you deserved it because you were an absolute prick to that mcdonald's worker.
> 
> muffinlance: i hope you enjoy. it occurred to me that ozai would have received the ransom note by albatross pigeon. this was too funny not to write about.

Nagi was delivering laundry when she saw it.

Nagi was delivering laundry by the most efficient route, that no one else used because she was the only person left running errands that had ever seen Prince Zuko. Nagi was professional, well-trained, and, most importantly, completely unnoticeable. She had survived six court cleansings in her lifetime, and was due to survive a great deal more. She had been working in the palace for almost twenty years and she was most certainly not afraid of the crown princess. She’d seen that girl as an infant in cloth wrappings, and quietly disapproved as the Fire Lord had point blank ignored her and her brother’s existence for six long years.

She’d heard Crown Princess Azula cry over her brother’s (overdramatic) rendition of the ending scene of  _ Love Amongst The Dragons  _ and it was very hard to be afraid of someone after that. Especially when said someone was doing something as non-intimidating as running through firebending forms cold.

All this to say that Nagi and Azula were the only people present when a giant white… messenger hawk? fell out of the sky. Fell, not flew. Directly into Princess Azula’s feet.

“What.”

Nagi was due for a break anyway and no one ever expected her to take this route so she had three minutes to spare.

She set down her basket and leaned surreptitiously against a pillar.

The bag - and it was a bag - that the scrolls were being carried in had the characters for Fire Lord inked into it. This did not stop the Princess from unbuttoning it and taking the letters out. For a brief moment, Nagi contemplated how unfair it was that royals could get away with so much treason.

Then came the kind of thing that reminded Nagi uncomfortably of just how young the Princess was.

Azula dropped to the floor and held one of the scrolls up to the sun, squinting, before shuffling to the left slightly and beginning to read. It was the oldest trick in the book for nosy little brats. Nagi was so suddenly caught up in memories of childhood scoldings from her mother, that she nearly missed the Princess  _ setting her hands on fire _ .

She had dropped the letter.

She was making the sort of face that suggested she was repressing her emotions.

(Nagi had watched her do this a fair amount in her time working this job.)

The bird started trying to eat her topknot.

The bird received an incredibly mild fireball to the chest for its trouble.

“I’m not the Fire Lord yet. My father is the recipient of these letters.”

(Nagi resisted the urge to squeal at the princess talking to a bird.)

“He’ll be in his office. Now, shoo.”

Nagi would take the image of the Crown Princess of her nation unsuccessfully trying to throw a bird towards her father’s office to the grave.

\---

Eiichi the Scribe was new. Second Day On The Job new. He was working in the Fire Lord’s office.

(Paranoia causes staffing shortages. Ozai taught his daughter many things.)

Eiichi the Scribe desperately wanted to go back to being Eiichi the Clerk.

(Staffing shortages in the royal palace tended to shorten the lifespans of many servants.)

Eiichi the Scribe had already given up on not visiting his sick relatives when the bird crashed through the window and attacked the Fire Lord’s face.

Eiichi the Scribe only looked up because Fire Lord Ozai had stopped speaking and started screaming.

Between one scribe and fourteen guards, the Fire Lord was returned to normal, the desk was doused, and Eiichi thought to dip the - what was it?- unrecognisably enormous, white, blobbish bird’s tail in one of the buckets.

\---

Eiichi the Clerk returned to his post after an invigorating holiday with his eyebrows singed off. Nobody spoke about why. The clerks collectively ignored the situation involving the once-little boy that used to hide in their office when he angered his father.

\---

Fire Lord Ozai wrinkled his nose at the Big Hawk and sent a regular-sized one.

It was later gifted to his beloved daughter, Crown Princess Azula. Rumours surrounding its current state have yet to be confirmed. Some say that Big Hawks are cuddly. These people do not say this in the general vicinity of the remaining royals.

**Author's Note:**

> azula would not have lasted as long as she did without a mental breakdown unless she was a little bit her age in private.
> 
> thanks for reading


End file.
